Conflicting Forecasts For How Cold And Snowy Winter In Michigan Will Be This Year

So a lot of people have been speculating about how good/bad the winter weather will be based on how cool Lake Michigan has been this summer. Unfortunately, the two leading sources of how we “predict” winter NOAA and The Old Farmer’s Almanachave varying ideas of the upcoming winter.

According to the almanac, winter this year in the Lower Lakes regions (which is Milwaukee down to Indianapolis and then along the lake up to Syracuse) should be warmer than normal and we’re supposed to see more rain/snow than we usually do. Although, it does say Ohio will have higher than normal snow fall and the rest of the region will be below average, so it’s safe to say if we do have a wetter winter, it will be more rain.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac also says that we can expect the most snow in the middle of December through the first part of January and then again around the start of February.

Now, here’s where the conflicting info comes into play.

MLive is reporting that the NOAA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric, has noticed that ocean surface temperatures have been cooling down pretty quickly which has made them issue a La Nina Watch for this fall.

Usually, when La Nina happens, it brings the Great Lakes region a colder winter and could even bring more snow to our area, according to the MLive story.

This La Nina watch has just developed so it’s going against earlier predictions, but I always thought the Farmer’s Almanac was like a psychic that knew this kind of change ahead of time? I guess we’ll have to see what happens, good thing last year was pretty mild.